“That’s sediment from every flood that is washed into the ocean from the rivers and settles there – it’s not pollution.

“When you look out to sea you can see the dark stripe of the clear deeper water.”

Mr Parker said the swells over the past six days had been pretty extreme but as soon as they settled, so would the sediment.

“The ocean currents will clear it away pretty quickly and the clear water will return.”

That shift has already started with the Bureau of Meteorology’s Coffs Harbour duty officer, Roger Brown, saying yesterday the swell had already dropped to about two metres.

“The East Coast low has been sitting off the coast just south of here and whipping up some pretty big seas,” Mr Brown said.

“It has now degenerated into a trough and the swell is on its way down.”

He said the forecast was for the swell (the waves generated by sea winds over thousands of kilometres) to continue settling although the seas (the waves generated by local winds) would pick up a bit on Thursday.